Greetings from London

Scott dropped me off at the airport the following morning for my flight down to Heathrow. I was very tired but in good spirits as I arrived at Heathrow and made my way onto the Tube where I got to christen my Oyster Card. I found my way out to Brixton and that place is so unique, very bustling. I'd be guessing that around half the people there are West Indian, and the whole place has an electric vibe to it. Got to Les' place courtesy of the precision of Google Maps and got to meet Crissi who is lovely, and then I started loading songs for Fruity On The Radio onto his laptop, while he finished off some postal orders - his online shop is going great guns selling merchandise and CDs around all the excitement of the two live shows. Les and Crissi's place is brilliant and they make such an excellent couple together. There's Carter memorabilia and photos all over the place. The room that I'm sleeping in has a lot of stuff too, as well as a lot of the merchandise which is getting shipped out a great rate because of the excitement surrounding the two Carter concerts.

We went down the street to do the "post office run" much to the disgruntlement of the woman at the post office who had to sort out a whole swag of t-shirts and mugs. We went off for a meal of bacon, eggs and toast (before getting shooed out because they wanted to close at 5), and then Les gave me a brief tour of Brixton, including the place where the riots kicked off in '95. A little later we set off on a long journey, with plenty of interchanges, out to Essex for the radio show. On the way, I filled out a few postcards for people too young or old to appreciate that a blog is far more informative and interesting than a postcard. So if you're reading this, chances are I'm very proud of your technological prowess and that you don't need a postcard! As for the others, I'd better find a post office so I can send there's off.

I was still coughing a lot when we arrived at the Phoenix FM HQ, but thankfully managed to get through the show without coughing or spluttering once. I got to play quite a few songs and really enjoyed every minute of it. In time, the show will appear as a podcast and I'll put it on line as a link once it's done. Long sleepy trip back, so instead of going back to Brixton via the train, Les recommended we catch the number 35 double-decker out to Brixton. The bus arrived within a couple of minutes and just like Baxendale, we went top deck... right at the front. I got a great view of London Bridge, inner London and other parts of the city that I was unlikely to see otherwise because I'm generally travelling via the tube. When I got back to Les' place I was really tired.

Crissi is a herbalist, so she did me a couple of concoctions to help with my cough, chest and general shabbiness. One was a warm elderberry drink, and once was a tea with sage, basil, peppermint and other goodies in it. I think it helped a bit, because the drinks, combined with a menagerie of syrups, tablets, rubs and inhalers helped me to get a decent nights sleep even though I was still coughing frequently when lying down. Sometimes I feel like a mobile pharmacy.

This morning I set out on the tube to the music shop district in Soho. I managed to spend five or so hours there scouring the music shops picking up some goodies. In fact, I made better progress than originally expected so I now find myself possibly with a bit more free time on Friday, when I plan to catch up with my friend Michael who used to work at Medibank. After that I ambled off to Piccadilly Circus, then through Leicester Square and I'm going to keep going off in the general direction of the University of London for tonight's event (concert isn't quite the right word) featuring David Lynch, Donovan and some other guy. It's an awareness raiser for the idea of using meditation in schools so that modern kids can learn to chill the hell out, not get so angry, not be so bad at school, and actually set themselves up to be decent human beings. The form of meditation they promote isn't Buddhist, but from what I know about it to date, I don't really see anything "unBuddhist" about it. One stop on the way to the University is here... an Internet Cafe. Hence the absence of any photos at this point in time. I'll pop some online when I get some free time at Les's place, in the meantime it's just been nice to have a sit in somewhere that's warm. The Victoria line tube to Brixton is closing a little early tonight, so hopefully tonight's proceedings don't drag on... they shouldn't, and thankfully it starts nice and early at 7:30pm.